Wilderness Downtown wins FWA Site of the Year Award and why it was my nr1
This year I was honored to be a judge for the FWA Site of the Year Award. It was a really difficult task to pick a winner out of the many amazing and very creative entries. Wilderness Downtown was a bit of an odd duck in the list. It was the only finalist created with HTML5. But you know what? It doesn’t matter! Wilderness Downtown wasn’t about one technology killing the other. It was about being creative and creating an interesting and unique experience. I think that’s exactly what The FWA SOTY award is all about and that is also the reason why it was number one on my list.
My number 2 won the People’s Choice Award. I really should say that it was a shared number 1 position because I couldn’t really pick one over the other. They’re both amazing pieces. The Lexus Dark Ride is a beautifully built interactive film that looks and feels like a Hollywood blockbuster.
The FWA has reactions from both winners and judges and a behind the scenes video from the makers of The Wilderness Downtown. Go check it out! Judging for this award was a lot of fun and it was great to get reminded about how much cool stuff is being done on the web these days. Regardless of which technology you choose… just keep making cool and creative experiences!
Rob Ford: “Will iDevices be left in a wilderness and possibly be the only devices not to support Flash?”
Rob Ford (the man behind the one of the industry’s most coveted web awards site TheFWA.com) started an interesting discussion on LinkedIn this morning. With all the exciting announcements coming out of CES (blog post with my favorites coming later today) he asks if the iPhone and iPad will be left in a wilderness and possibly be the only devices not to support Flash?
Rob Ford: “Tablets look set to hog the headlines at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Industry watchers expect 100 or more of the portable gadgets to be shown off at the four-day technology extravaganza.”
It seems that one key feature people look for with a new tablet is the ability to run Flash, I know I certainly do.
It also seems that every tablet coming to the market does.
So, will the iPhone and iPad be left in a wilderness and possibly be the only devices not to support Flash?
Flash on mobile is still incredibly new and we are still waiting to see exciting new mobile optimised content. We are pretty much back at Flash 2/3 in terms of the web. To illustrate that point, look at these old Flash sites on your Flash enabled smartphone or tablet, they all work perfectly:
Gabocorp http://www.thefwa.com/flash10/1996_7.html 1997
EYE4U http://www.eye4u.com/home/ 1998
NRG.be http://www.nrg.be/archived/flash.php 1998
Matinee http://www.matinee.co.uk/site2/fr_nmd.htm 1998
Who’s We Studios http://www.whoswestudios.com/flashsite.html 2002
tokyoplastic http://www.tokyoplastic.com/tokyoplastic1.swf 2003
Agencies are definitely working with Flash and AIR for mobile as we speak.
The iPhone is my most used device but I miss the lack of Flash. A friend of mine who is outside of this industry recently told me the only time he fires up his laptop is when he tries to access a site on his iPhone that requires Flash.
I am still looking at tablets but will only buy one that does support Flash.
I also feel the app store is a “boys club” network, especially after publishing an iPhone app for FWA Photo. It was a long and painful process and aftersales was useless. I prefer the freedom the web gave us and hate to see it taken away.
I believe that 2011 will see many of us moving away from the need for Flash on Apple’s devices. All that energy wasted on trying to change Apple’s stance is better focused on getting creative on devices that work.
I don’t want to hijack Rob’s discussion so I closed the comments on this post. You can share your thoughts on Rob’s LinkedIn discussion thread.
3000+ reasons why Flash isn’t going anywhere soon
The FWA is almost 10 years old (established in May 2000) and they started their 10th anniversary celebrations early by launching a brand new site (created by Belgian based Flash rockstars Group94). The FWA is one of the few sites I visit daily and a great inspirational resource. Every day they award the best site with their acclaimed and much wanted “Site of the Day” award. Winners proudly add the yellow ribbon to their site to show that they won.
The FWA has awarded over 3000 sites in the last 10 years… Less than 10 of those use a technology other than Flash. So… If you’re looking for great examples of why Flash isn’t going anywhere soon, The FWA is a good place to start! In just about every thinkable category from games to architecture to educational to fashion and more you can find inspiring examples that showcase the power of the Flash Platform.
If you have any doubts that Flash doesn’t have a future, you should just look at some of the amazing sites and apps showcased on The FWA!
Here are some of my favorite recent FWA winners:
Flash on!
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